Principal player in construction probe dies

Linda GYULAI, THE GAZETTE02.04.2013

Martial Fillion, a former chief of staff for the mayor Gérald Tremblay, leaves Sûreté du Québec headquarters in Montreal Thursday, May 17, 2012 after he’d been arrested by Quebec’s anti-corruption squad in Montreal earlier in the day.

MONTREAL — One of the main actors who drew the attention of provincial anti-corruption investigators to the city of Montreal and who was arrested with others last year over the municipal Contrecoeur sale has died.

Martial Fillion, 58, died on Tuesday after what was a brief illness that had him admitted to hospital during the weekend.

His named resurfaced at the Charbonneau Commission hearings into corruption in Quebec’s construction industry and the awarding of public-sector contracts just last week as the commission turned its attention to the Contrecoeur deal.

Quebec’s permanent anti-corruption unit, or UPAC, arrested Fillion, who served as Gérald Tremblay’s first chief of staff at city hall after the latter was elected mayor in November 2001, along with former city executive committee chairman Frank Zampino, the former director of financing of Tremblay’s political party, Bernard Trépanier, and others in May over the 2007 sale of the city-owned Contrecoeur site to Construction Frank Catania et Associés.

The developer, Paolo Catania, was among those arrested in what UPAC called a plot to defraud the municipality of $1 million in the awarding of the contract to redevelop the Contrecoeur site.

Faubourg Contrecoeur is a residential development of single-family homes and townhouses in Montreal’s Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district.

In 2007, the city’s real-estate agency sold the 38-hectare lot to the developer for $4.4 million, even though the municipal evaluation was $31 million.

Fillion headed the agency, the Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal, during that time. He had left city hall to become general manager of the SHDM. The agency fired Fillion over irregularities found in an internal audit of the Contrecoeur deal in 2008.

Zampino is alleged to have enlisted the help of Fillion and Trépanier to funnel confidential information about the contract to Catania’s company.

During recent testimony at the Charbonneau Commission, Catania’s former business partner Elio Pagliarulo testified that Catania worked out a deal with Zampino that allowed the construction magnate to purchase the city-owned land for a fraction of the cost. Catania also hired a private company to produce a false study that suggested the land would need to be decontaminated, Pagliarulo said, which reduced the cost even further. In return for his co-operation, Pagliarulo alleged, Zampino got $300,000 cash in three instalments.

A trial date was to be set for Fillion, along with some of the others accused, on March 4.

During his time as Tremblay’s chief of staff, Fillion’s wife, Francine Senécal, was a city councillor and member of the city executive committee.

A Quebec Liberal stalwart, Fillion started his career as a party researcher.

He worked for Ryan from 1991 to 1994 as chief of staff. Ryan was language minister and also minister of public security and municipal affairs.

He later worked for Liberal leader Daniel Johnson before making the leap to municipal affairs.

He was a man known as hardworking, who loved Quebec and had a keen sense of humour, a close Liberal friend said Tuesday.